Clonal micropropagation of Thymus vulgaris L.

Abstract

Thymus vulgaris L. is one of the widely known spicy aromatic and medicinal plants. Thyme plant material is widely used in medicine, cooking and perfumery. To increase the efficiency of breeding and seed production, it is necessary to develop biotechnological techniques, in particular, clonal micropropagation. The aim of the research is to optimize the composition of culture media for the main stages of propagation in vitro and to select adaptation ex vitro conditions for the development of Thymus vulgaris. clonal micropropagation. The article presents the results of studies of explant morphometric parameters cultivated on 20 variants of culture media at firstsecond stages of micropropagation. It was found that the optimal culture medium at the introduction stage is MS medium with 1.0 mg/l Kin and 1.0 mg/l GA3, on which, on average, 2.2 microshoots per explant with a length of 1.9 cm were obtained. Both high vitrification rate of microshoots and formation of small shoots (0.6-0.9 cm) were observed on media supplemented with BAP or TDZ. The most effective culture medium at the proper propagation stage is MS with 1.0 mg/l Kin, on which 4.6 shoots per explant and the multiplication index 12.8 were obtained. It is advisable to root microshoots at the 3rd stage of micropropagation on MS culture medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l IBA or 1.0 mg/l IAA. It has been shown that it is possible to obtain high plant survival rate (89.5%) during adaptation ex vitro, using a substrate consisting of peat and perlite (1:1).